What's on the Sheff's Menu: Entry 2

Last month I discussed my appreciation for Gary Sheffield and how he was a favorite player of mine growing up.  The bat speed, strong arm, and angry swagger made me really like him in my little league days and early teen years at high school.  

My all time favorite player is obviously Andrew McCutchen.

Each month I am going to try to show off a card of Gary Sheffield that has also had the design used for an Andrew McCutchen card.  You can view all items on the Sheff's Menu by clicking here.  (Title for this subject to change and open for suggestions)

Today I am going to look at the Donruss Studio line.

Donruss Studio began in 1991.

It quickly became known as a set for getting to know the actual faces of the game by not only showing bust up shots of the players, but also getting more personal on the backs.

Early Studio releases didn't talk about stats, they talked about hobbies and heroes.

I didn't go through all the card backs and tried to shy away from the "Superstars" of the release time so I can get a better understanding of what athletes were into in 1991.

Well we learn that John Smiley, Pirates pitcher, and Juan Gonzalez, Rangers Outfielder, both enjoy watching Miami Vice.

Do you think that Joe Girardi and Goose Gossage ever got together to talk about their favorite Sanford & Son episodes?  Did you even know they both liked that show?

1991 Studio provided us with that tidbit of information.

Studio was made until 1998, then resurrected in 2003 and lasted for a few more years before becoming an insert set in 2014-2016 Donruss releases.  1993 Studio also had one of the coolest insert sets ever made for the early 90s Junk Wax Era when they had modern players wear the old throwback uniforms. 

It is the original 1991 design that was used in 2013 for a Panini Father's Day product that we are going to look at today.

Here are the Cutch and Sheff side by side.

As you can see, much of the original 1991 design was sustained for this limited hobby store only release in 2013.  The photos are black and white with a border.

The biggest difference is the city name replacing the team logo in the bottom left corner and the complete omission of player position in the bottom right corner.

And here are the backs.

The most notable difference on the back is the current is a sepia style card back, where the original 1991 is strictly black and white.  PERSONAL, CAREER, HOBBIES & INTERESTS are all still featured on the back.  The biggest omission is that we no longer know who the athlete's hero is. The copyright details are also different since Panini only has a player's license and not an MLB license. 

Overall, I thought the 2013 Panini Father's Day paid a very nice homage to the 1991 Studio set. Due to legal reasons there are some things they can't do with the set now that they were able to do back then and I actually like the Sepia tone more on the back than the traditional black and white.

Couple questions for today

Did you collect 1991 Studio at release and what were your thoughts on it?

(Without cheating) Can you recognize these 6 players? Hint, they all won an MVP Award

The First Wave Arrived Today

Over the weekend sales of the McCutchen SP went from $60 to almost $400 in less than 24 hours.  It was absolutely insane to see the hype and frenzy that surrounded that card all due to ESPN, Cutch, and Dick Allen's tweets.

I never put much into social media influencers and thought it was all a scam, but damn if I didn't see something like it first hand.

The average price of the cards at their highest selling point was almost $275.

Similar pricing spikes occurred around Memorial Day for the Project 2020 cards.

I refused to pay over $200 and certainly not  $275 for a Short Print photo variant

For
A
Card
That
Comes
1:7 Packs

Mind blown!!!!

Rather than use that money to be caught up in the here and now, I used it to only buy Cutch cards I needed from COMC, eBay, sportlots, and artist sites.

Over the course of the next week (I'm guessing) I will show off the cards and items I bought during that 24 hour frenzy.

Some of them I have been after for a LOOOOOONG TIME.  I will provide screenshots of the receipts too.

One of the cards is a unicorn I've been chasing for 7 years!

Now let me preface and say that I overpaid for some of these cards.  This isn't how I normally collect, but I wanted the challenge to be genuine and only purchase cards over the weekend of the frenzy.

The first batch came today and it's a pair of 2020 Topps Series 2 parallels.

On the left is the Father's Day variant numbered to 50 copies.  I really like the baby blue color on this card in particular because it matches up nicely with the Powder Blue uniform of the Phillies.

Speaking of powder blue uniforms, I also got the vintage stock and logo parallel.

This parallel is numbered to only 99 copies.

First 2 cards
$37.00

Happy Father's Day

I have shown off a number of cards relating to Father's Day over the past few years.  Panini has released a limited release set called Father's Day each year and Cutch was one of the few MLB players they selected for the set.  Cutch appeared in the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018 releases.

It is likely that he won't appear in this year's release due to playing in only a third of the game's last year.

To keep the tradition of posting a Father's Day related card on Father's Day I am going to switch companies and show the 2018 Topps Update Father's Day blue parallel.

Like all previous years it is numbered to 50 copies on the back.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Happy Father's Day

Last year I wrote a story about why my dad is my hero and how he is the greatest role model to me.  I also showed off some Andrew McCutchen related Father's Day Cards too.  Go check out those cards as Cutch was a frequent athlete used for Panini's Father's Day release each year.

Last year after a brief hiatus of not being used for Panini's annual release, Cutch was back.  He represented the San Francisco baseball club and proudly wore his Cross armband as he so often does.

Proverbs 20:7
The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him.

I chose to use this verse to help get me back on track with Scripture Sundays.

One More Belated Father's Day

I forgot to wish my brother a Happy Father's Day yesterday too.  He had the chance to take batting practice before the Lakewood Blue Claws game (Phillies A ball), but showed up an hour late so he couldn't.

Way to fail, Lil Brudder!

Anyway here's a Father's Day card I neglected to show.

It's from my least favorite Father's Day design by Panini over the years, but hey...it's a 1/1

Ho Hum, another 1 of 1

Ho hum indeed

Happy Father's Day

I want to say Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

I know that the greatest influence on my life is my own father.

He was there for me while growing up.

I still go and visit him once a week and enjoy catching up with him about whatever life is throwing his way.

As someone who is self employed I am continuously impressed with the hard work and ethics he has and how he instilled them i to me.

One of my favorite moments of my childhood was when I was 12 years old in little league. Unlike now where there are pitch limits, all my league had was 6 innings limit for a 7 day period.  My dad was the head coach and I was one of our team's all stars.  I however wasn't our best pitcher.  I was the second best pitcher on the team.  

Our star pitcher had been used for 1 inning against what equates to this year's MLB version of the Reds.  They were called the Yankees and the team stunk.  Sean, the stud pitcher, had to be used though because of other inning limits for myself and our third best pitcher, Dave, the previous seven days.

I was cruising through 5 innings of no hit ball striking out 11.  I walked 4, but my Kent Tekulve sidearm pitching style was nasty that day.  

My dad told me he was going to take me out since we had a 7-1 lead (few wild pitches caused a walk to turn into a run). 

I remember looking at him with determinition saying "I want to finish this".  

He then said "I'm probably going to need you for an inning against the Giants," the best team in the league.  

While not as firm I remember getting upset knowing that I probably wouldn't win the battle, I looked and said "please Dad".

I went out for the sixth and final inning getting one more strikeout and getting the next two guys to hit groundballs to Sean at shortstop.  

We won the game and I pitched a no hitter.  

My arm is still fine.

I didn't need Tommy John surgery despite throwing over 100 pitches.

Rain engulfed NJ for the next week so we had to reschedule the game.

Sean was allowed to pitch all six innings against the Giants, which we also won by a score of 1-0.  I got the team's only hit off their ridiculously good pitcher "Woody". I stole second and third, then came home on a sac fly.  

Those memories of my dad coaching the team, having my best friend on my team and his dad being so close with my dad are amazing memories that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

After the game we celebrated with icecream and a trip to Sports Authority.  There I got a pack of Donruss Studio 1993 and a Florida Marlins tshirt.  I remember pulling one of those throwback Will Clark cards and thinking how cool it was.

So again Thank You Dad!!!!

Thank you for inspiring me and believing in me!!!

Now here are some Cutch Father's Day released cards and parallels.

I will start with an unofficial Father's Day card.
This 2011 Bowman and it's Chrome counterparts features an image of Cutch from Father's Day June 20, 2010.  The blue armband and headband combined with the Sunday alternative pinstripe uniforms give the game away.  Cutch would go and help lead the Pirates to a victory ending their 12 game losing streak.

I have 6 of the paper parallels

And 4 of the Chrome parallels

Moving on to 2013 we have the begining of a 4 year stretch that Cutch appeared in Panini's annual Father's Day release.
Meant to look like Donruss Studio 1993 is the 20 year retro look at that classic set.  I have both the lava flow and regular versions in addition to a Cracked Ice autograph version and two production proofs.

The back features the exact same concept as the 93 version...

The 2014 Father's Day release is an extremely boring lackluster design both on the front

and the back.

I need a bunch of parallels to this set, but am in no rush to get them.  At least begining in 2014 they designated this as an official set and made it a little easier to catalog.

2015 Father's Day by Panini brought one of my favorite images of Cutch to appear on cardboard

and a reference to one of my favorite super heroes.  This card is awesome!!!  There may be an autographed version of this card as the checklist states some of the Elements photos have autograph parallels, but I can't find any additional information to confirm who got the autograph treatment.

2016 would be the last year that Cutch appears in the Father's Day yearly release.  The design is nice and there are so many parallels that I still need for both the regular stock and thick stock versions.  I currently only have this thick stock base version /50. There are hyperplaid and cracked ice for both regular and thick stock if I remember correctly.  I need that base version too.

Even though it is the same image on the back, it is nice to get an image on the back of this year's product.

I love the design of this card.

2018 Donruss provided fans with a new parallel to chase down...Father's Day blue ribbon /49.

Begining in 2017, Topps started to call their powder blue parallels a Father's Day parallel and numbered them to 50 just like the Mother's Day parallels.  I currently have both the 2017 and 2018 cards, but need the Allegheny Armada with John Jaso from 2017.

Spider-Man Wall Climbing

Spider-Man came out over the weekend and as is customary for me to do on Wednesdays, I will be going to my $6 matinee.  I have stayed away from all the spoilers and am really looking forward to seeing how this movie ties in with the other Marvel films.

Here's a card of Cutch showing some wall climbing abilities
I have the base, but also the Superfractory version of this Black Friday Elements card numbered to 10.

It even references Spider-Man on the back

Here are a few others of the Cutch doing his best Peter Parker impersonations.

Up first is one of my all time favorite images  of Cutch on cardboard.

Next up are a pair of cards from 2013 Chrome and Flagship.
Both are SP photo variants, but the chrome version carries a substantially higher secondary market.

As I look through my binders I will see if there are any other webhead wallcrawler references.